Action Comics #18

I predict this issue ends with Superman wedged between a train and a wall.

Last issue, Mr. Mxyzptlk finally woke up. But since he's a fifth dimensional creature, doesn't that mean he's now awake across all moments? So it's like he was never in a coma at all! I'm so confused. Leave it to Grant Morrison to not only tell a multi-Earth tale but to add multiple dimensions and time travel to his story as well! What a show off.

Oh yeah! And Lex Luthor saved Superman's life.

I didn't say he did it with the best of intentions.

Luthor only gets the one chance to divert Doomsday Brand X Superman's attention away from killing Superman because Lex isn't really in the battle armor. He's controlling it remotely from his super secure prison facility vacation home. Once Doomsday Brand X Superman destroys it, Luthor's out of options. But his distraction may have helped save Krypto's life. Although I don't know what kind of a life a dog can have without a soul. Oh wait! Yes I do! A normal one!

If you guys are going to insist on constantly making me sad, I'm going to stop reading your stupid comic book!

Superman doesn't have time to save Krypto because he has a schedule to keep. First on the schedule, punch Doomsday Brand X Superman in the bony face. Second on his schedule, get loaded on Red Kryptonite.

At this point in Superman's life, he's never even met Mr. Mxyzptlk! Poor Supes! Being punished for something he'll never get to do!

Lion-headed Superman soon becomes Ant-headed Superman as Vyndktvx reminds Superman that the Silver Age was a super fun time to be alive. But those days it was Mxyzptlk doing the pranking! It was silly and whimsical. Vyndktvx is a modern day fifth dimensional bastard and he knows some really mean tricks. At this point, I don't even think he wants to kill Supes. He just wants to torture him and make the whole world hate his guts.

Meanwhile in Mr. Mxyzptlk's hospital room, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane and Cosmic Man and Saturn Woman and Lightning Man all try to make sense of what is happening. Ferlin Nyxly arrives to add to the chaos. He brings the Superman shirt with his mother's blood on it. He does this because he's supposed to do this. It's one of the reasons he was created. It's all a fifth dimensional plan that three dimensional people can't even begin to see.

So even the stories about Superman buying his shirts were important to the plan!

Apparently Ferlin Nyxly is the key to defeating Vyndktvx. Ferlin was Mxyzptlk's greatest trick not because he created a son that he always wanted but he created a way to defeat Vyndktvx. Ferlin is a Music Therapist and he's also somehow linked to Vyndktvx. So either Ferlin has to sing Vyndktvx into submission or maybe Ferlin simply has to say Vyndktvx's name backwards. Or most probably, Ferlin is roommates with Ambush Bug and he needs to give Irwin a ring to come and save Supes life!

The fight between Superman and Doomsday Brand X Superman is happening in the third dimension but Supes is also battling Vyndktvx in the fourth dimension although Superman sees this battle as the Red Kryptonite hallucinations. Vyndktvx is beginning to get confused trying to comport himself to the rules and boundaries of the third dimension as he controls Doomsday Brand X Superman. Thankfully for Superman, the original Superman, Captain Comet, shows up with his 31st Century team, The Wanderers.

It would have been so much better if he had shown up with Atari Force.

Atari Force defeats the Anti-Superman Army and save Krypto (he'll regrow his soul!) and convince Erik Drekken to evolve into one of them and join Atari Force. Now they're providing psychic cover to help Superman. And then Morrison hits on an interesting aspect of a fifth dimensional attack on a third dimensional person.

For Vyndktvx, this is a spontaneous attack. He hasn't been planning to torture Superman across his whole life. He just threw a tantrum and all of this happened. It's so easy for Vyndktvx that his plan came together in mere moments (if you can call whatever he experiences as time "moments") while Superman has been dealing with it seemingly his entire life. Technically Vyndktvx has as many chances as he wants to defeat Superman. He can just keep coming back again and again and again. But he doesn't. It's just this single time. Which means he must be defeated.

Well, duh! Of course he's going to be defeated! But I like the logic inherent in the situation that implies he absolutely must be beaten here.

And to do so, instead of getting Vyndktvx to say his name backwards, Superman gets everyone on earth to say their names backwards at the same time. He can do this because Vyndktvx has linked everyone's minds so that Superman could feel the pain and anguish and death of mankind. But when everyone says their names backwards, Ferlin says his backwards too. And it's not the one he thought was his.

And so Vyndktvx says his name backwards as well, disappearing into the fifth dimension.

Back in the Fifth Dimension, it's the moment after Vyndktvx killed the king and he's arrested and dragged away. Mxyzptlk's plan came through. Although it wasn't a plan to save Superman at all. It was simply a plan to become King and win the Princess's love. What a little bastard.

Unless it all happened differently. Who can fucking tell?

Action Comics #18 Rating: -1 Ranking. I'm a bit disappointed with this ending. Although it could be my feeble mind that just hasn't put it all together, it was pretty much a super cheesy ending getting everyone to help support Superman with the name trick. But I also think there's a lot I didn't quite follow. I know I should reread the entire Mxyzptlk run but I think I'll leave it as it is for now. Vyndktvx killed a king and threw a tantrum to punish Superman. In the end, Superman's life ends up altered and screwed up from what it could have been, but Superman does not let Ms. Nyxly wish it back to normal because he needs the wish so that Noah Random and his family on Mars don't have their faces melted off. I'm not clear on why or how Ferlin was a part of Vyndktvx except that he was "Mxy's greatest trick." I'm not sure that Legion really did anything to help unless they did slam their time bubble in Vynnie's face to confuse him. And I'm not sure at what point in time the final Day took place, but I guess that isn't really important. It just happens to be a fight that Superman had to wage across his whole life. Luckily it just happens the one time. Umm, as far as Superman knows!